California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday he will commute the death sentences of 548 people on the state’s death row, effectively ending capital punishment in California. He had already halted executions through an executive moratorium.
In a letter to residents, Newsom called the state’s death penalty system deeply flawed and vulnerable to error, arguing that it conflicts with California’s values.
After nearly three decades in public office, Newsom wrote, he had come to recognize the limits of what government can justly do. He said executions are incompatible with the state’s values, weaken the legal system and diminish society as a whole.
The executive action changes each death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The decision comes as capital punishment has again drawn national attention following a botched execution in Tennessee involving death row inmate Christa Pike.
California has not executed anyone since 2006. Soon after taking office in 2019, Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions and ordered the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison to be dismantled.
The announcement drew criticism from victims’ rights advocates, including Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and murdered in 1993. Her killer, Richard Allen Davis, remains on death row.
Klaas said he was disappointed, arguing that the commutations grant life to people who took it from their victims. He said he did not understand Newsom’s reasoning and suggested it echoed the governor’s earlier explanation for halting executions. Klaas added, sarcastically, that Newsom had now secured the support of serial killers.
Opponents of the death penalty, meanwhile, welcomed the decision. Rev. Jeff Hood, a spiritual adviser to people on death row, said he had heard the silence that follows an execution 14 times. He praised Newsom for ending that silence, describing the commutations as an act of moral leadership.
Hood said he hoped governors in states that still carry out executions would find the resolve to follow Newsom’s example.
